Gingerbread Simple Syrup
Make Gingerbread Simple Syrup from scratch with brown sugar, molasses, vanilla, and warming spices -a quick and easy way to enhance your coffee, lattes, cocktails, and desserts with seasonal gingerbread flavor all year long!
The holiday season isn’t complete without decorating gingerbread cookies, building gingerbread houses, and sipping on sweet and spiced gingerbread lattes. That said, we can’t think of any reason not to enjoy gingerbread-flavored goodies year-round. This homemade gingerbread simple syrup is the perfect way to make that happen, and it comes together in no time.
A combination of brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg enriches simple homemade syrup with a warm caramelized flavor. However, molasses is key to giving this syrup its distinct gingerbread flavor.
In the U.K., golden syrup (water, sugar, and citric acid) is a popular way to sweeten coffee and baked goods. It’s hard to come by stateside, but that’s okay because this gingerbread syrup is an excellent alternative to making gingerbread treats without golden syrup.
Why You Should Make Gingerbread Flavored Syrup
- Making flavored simple syrup from scratch is less expensive than buying it from the store.
- It adds festive gingerbread flavor to holiday drinks, cocktails, and baked goods.
- Homemade simple syrups are a thoughtful holiday gift for the coffee lovers in your life!
- It’s super quick and easy.
🧾 Ingredients
This recipe makes 1 cup (16 tablespoons) of gingerbread flavored syrup. A few things to note about the ingredients:
- Water: You’ll need water as the base for the rest of the ingredients to dissolve. You can use any drinking water, but filtered or distilled water makes the best tasting simple syrup and has the soundest shelf-life.
- Brown Sugar: You can use light or dark brown sugar here.
- Molasses: Molasses is a thick, dark syrup extracted during sugar-making. It’s a key ingredient in developing gingerbread flavor. You can use a 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar as a substitution, but the taste will not be as deep.
- Vanilla Extract: Use quality pure vanilla extract for the most decadent flavor.
- Ginger & Cinnamon: This combination of spices is the foundation of any festive flavor.
- Gingerbread Spice: You’ll need a pinch each of cloves, nutmeg, and allspice to complete the gingerbread flavor.
Recommended Tools:
- Small Saucepan
- Whisk
- Jar With Tight Fitting Lid
📖 How To Make Gingerbread Flavored Simple Syrup
1️⃣ Step One: Whisk ingredients
Add filtered water, brown sugar, molasses, vanilla extract, and ground spices to a small saucepan. Whisk to combine.
2️⃣ Step Two: Heat to dissolve
Place the saucepan on the stove over medium-high heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Let the mixture boil (stirring occasionally) until the brown sugar and molasses dissolve.
3️⃣ Step Three: Let simple syrup cool
Once the brown sugar and molasses have dissolved, remove the saucepan from the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
4️⃣ Step Four: Store simple syrup
Pour your homemade gingerbread syrup into a sanitized jar with a tight-fitted lid and let cool completely before storing it in the fridge for 2 to 3 weeks.
👉 Recipe Tips
- Store in sanitized glassware – Gingerbread simple syrup is good for up to 3 weeks as long as the jar is sanitized (preventing any bacteria from sneaking in).
- Be sure to let your syrup cool completely to room temperature before putting it in the fridge.
- Shake it – If the spices settle, no worries. Give the jar a shake to redistribute them.
- To avoid the spices floating to the bottom, you can strain the syrup through cheesecloth into your storage jar.
- Use fresh ginger – If you have a piece of fresh ginger, by all means, use it. Add a 1/2 cup of sliced ginger to the simmering syrup and strain the pieces out before storing.
- Freshness matters – Using fresh (non-expired) ground spices will make the difference in the flavor.
🍦 How To Use
Check out the list below for delicious ways to use this cinnamon and ginger-spiced holiday syrup:
- Gingerbread simple syrup for coffee – Intensify a homemade gingersnap cold brew or latte with cheerful gingerbread flavor.
- Add a splash to homemade cold foam to make creamy gingerbread cold foam -perfect for layering on top of fresh cold brew.
- Add flavor and moisture to baked goods – This simple syrup is an excellent option for golden syrup and corn syrup in gingerbread goodies and baked goods.
- As a topping drizzled over ice cream, waffles, pancakes (or anywhere you’d typically use maple syrup or honey)
🥃 Gingerbread Simple Syrup Cocktails
Gingerbread Old Fashioned: In a cocktail shaker, add an orange slice, a couple of maraschino cherries, and an ounce of gingerbread simple syrup. Muddle the fruit and syrup together and then strain the syrup into a rocks glass over ice. Top with 2 ounces of bourbon, stir and serve.
Gingerbread Cookie Martini: Add an ounce of gingerbread syrup, 1 ounce of vanilla vodka, 1 ounce of coffee liqueur, and a splash of cream to a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a brown sugar-rimmed martini glass.
Gingerbread Manhattan: In a cocktail shaker, stir 2 ounces of bourbon with a 1 ounce of gingerbread syrup, a dash of sweet vermouth, and ice. Strain into a martini glass and serve.
🧊 How To Store
Before storing homemade simple syrups, always let them cool completely. Keep your simple syrup infusions in sanitized glass containers for food safety purposes.
Refrigerator storage: After cooling to room temperature, pour into a jar with a tight-fitted lid and refrigerate for 2 to 3 weeks.
Freezer storage: Ice cube trays are the best way to freeze this syrup. The cubes are perfect for quickly chilling and flavoring drinks.
❔ FAQ
What is golden syrup in the UK?
In many British baked goods, golden syrup is used for moisture and sweetening (similar to corn syrup). It’s made from a combination of water, sugar, and citric acid and is a thick, amber-colored syrup with a distinct deep caramelized and buttery flavor.
What can you use to replace molasses?
Instead of molasses, you can use equal parts maple syrup, honey, corn syrup, or golden syrup. A quarter cup of dark brown sugar also works. Just know the flavor won’t be quite the same. Is molasses the same as simple syrup?
No. While they serve similar purposes in drinks and baked goods, simple syrup is sugar dissolved in water while molasses is extracted from the juices during the actual sugar-making process.
What’s in a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte?
According to the Starbucks website, milk, brewed espresso, gingerbread syrup, whipped cream, vanilla syrup, and nutmeg are in the gingerbread latte.
🥄 More Homemade Simple Syrup Recipes
Gingerbread Simple Syrup
Equipment
- Small Saucepan
- Whisk
- Jar With Tight Fitting Lid
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Filtered Water
- 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/3 cup Molasses
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 tsp Ground Ginger
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1/8 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/8 tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp Ground Allspice
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients to a small saucepan.
- Whisk everything together until fully combined.
- Turn the heat to medium high and bring to a boil while stirring occasionally until sugar and molasses are dissolved. This could take 7-10 minutes.
- Remove from heat and let it sit for 15 minutes to cool.
- Pour into a sanitized jar with a lid and cool completely.
- Store in the fridge for 2-3 weeks.
